Kids Deployment Day

The base hosted what they called PDF DAY yesterday. With a 60% deployment rate from this base in January, the goal was to show all the children what their parents go through to process and get ready. It went from 3:00 - 7:00 and they said they had a GREAT time! ( A good friend took them and took all these pictures!!) Once again some of the pictures don't show up fully. If you want to see the full picture, just click on the picture!

Here is Collin in a bullet proof vest.

Kaitlynn in full gear!
Those big eyes even show through the gas mask!
Silly Kaitlynn! Can make a funny face picture even with a gas mask on! Here she is with James.

Collin standing behind the police shield and both of them in front of one of the satellite dishes.

Then they got to hold some of the real equipment, from night vision goggles to assult rifles.


It is just weird, ya know? Seeing my KIDS holding real assult rifles!!


They went through the check line to have their folders checked to make sure all the proper paperwork was there and filled out.
Then they got to board a C-130!!!

Collin even got to be the co-pilot, and Kaitlynn was the Navigator!


And Kaitlynn in the Hummer!
All in all they learned a lot and had a good time! They were numbers 206 and 207, obviously a LOT of kids and their parents turned out for this learning experiemce.

BINGO, Goliath and Happy Meals

This morning, we took a break from school and went to volunteer at the retirement center in Mountain Home. A few weeks ago, our squadron asked for help with BINGO day. So we volunteered!!!
Kids of ANY age are a hit in nursing homes, so the best part of the morning was the smiles from the residents. They asked them questions, a few even asked for hugs! Kaebrie just went from wheelchair, to walker, to chair, smiling and saying "HI" in her loud sweet voice!
Kaitlynn was asked to help a table of ladies who could not see their cards very well and she did a GREAT job! She has always loved the elderly, always been comfortable around them. I realized this morning how lacking we are in that age group anymore. This is not a retirement area, so everyone around here is still active duty. Most retire in their 40's, some in their 50's. We have NOBODY over 55 that lives on base or attends our chapel. We had such an incredible group of ladies at our Louisville church that we treasured so much and I missed them so much today!

Collin's job was to sit and play 4 cards at a time and keep them current, so if anybody came in late they could play on a current card. And many were late, so his job was valuable!
Kaebrie tried to play BINGO with the teabags from the tables. That got a lot of smiles.

There was one little uncomfotable incident with a lady who was just not happy. Kept yelling mean and obscene things at the other ladies. I had a quiet talk with Kaitlynn, and she took it in stride, though I could tell she was VERY surprised to hear someone talk like that.
Overall, I am glad we went on this rainy and cold morning. After we left, we went to Albertsons and found our Thanksgiving Day turkey. A 26 pounder. The kids named him Goliath. By then it was after 12:00, so it was Happy Meals for lunch and back to the base we drove!
BINGO, Goliath and Happy Meals. A typical chaos day at the Smith house!!! :-)

Ice Skating!

What a special night!
Even though the hockey season ended 2 weeks ago, the coach decided to have the end of season party at the ice rink in Boise.
After a pizza supper, the coach stood up to hand out the certificates and the trophies.
He went alphabetically, but he skipped SMITH. I thought they had accidently forgotten his, and he would have to wait till they re-ordered, knowing he would be disapointed, he was SO excited about getting his first hockey trophy!
BUT..... the coach then said he had one last trophy to present. And also something special. He and the asst. coach had decided to pick Collin as their MVP, Most Valuable Player, this season. He said that that though Collin was not their best skater, he showed many other exceptional qualities. His positive attitude, his encouragement of others, his constant effort and desire to learn new things, his teamwork and his constant enjoyment made them choose him for the MVP this season. It was all I could do not to cry right then and there.
Here is the MVP with his trophy and certificate!!!!!!!!!

Now, on the hour drive to Boise, I had told Collin and Kaitlynn to expect to hang on the the side for a while. It might take some time to get used to it, and not to be discouraged if they had to hang on the entire time.
I ate those words! Collin held on for about 30 seconds, then took off! Kaitlynn held on halfway around the rink, then she took off! These two southern kids looked like they had been born with blades on their feet! Winter sports sure do come easy for them!!!!!!!! Good thing this rink is open year round because we are going to HAVE to go back!

Skiing, white water rafting, sledding, ice skating................ NO PROBLEM!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-)

Snow Camping

I know of another way men and women are different. Women have no desire to go and sleep in the snow.
Here is Sam, with 2 of our FCA guys, Jesse and Ben, as they were leaving for a camping trip and adventure in the snow. See how clean they are!
CRAZY. Just crazy.

They made it to trinity lakes, elevation 9354 feet, and are setting up the tent. BRRRRRR!

Time to put on the snow chains and take a drive through the mountains!

There they go!!!!!

The 3 dudes and their cars!

Sam had to pull Ben out when he got caught in a very high snow drift.

A very funny picture!

They had a good time. Nobody got frostbite. The vehicles came back undamaged as well.

Daddy had a successful day bird hunting! He came home, all smiles, with 2 beautiful pheasants~ (is that how you spell that?)

Kaebrie was fascinated! She kept wanting to pet them!

They sure are pretty! We have more tail feathers for you if you want them JuJu!

So, Sam spends some time on the internet, trying to read about how is the best way to "prepare" them. He finds out, that in England, they HANG the birds for a few days in the cold, BEFORE they de-feather and cut them up.

WARNING: for the "easily grossed out" please skip this explanation! :-)
Apparently, when anything dies, rigor mortis sets in, making all the muscles hard and stiff. If you wait long enough, the rigor mortis will go away, causing the muscles to be soft again. THAT is why they hang them whole and wait, waiting for rigor mortis to go away, then cut up the bird when it is all soft to eat!

So, since it wasn't quite cold enough outside to hang meat safely, he used the next best thing. My fridge! Thankfully it was the drink fridge in the garage!! But here they hang (or hung, they are gone now) for 3 days. They are now nice little pieces of meat wrapped in foil in the freezer. I do admit, everytime we had company all week, the kids asked them to go open the fridge! :-)

Would this make make a good advertisement for Coke products??? :-)

 

Field Trip to Sunview Dairy

The Homeschool Group got together this CHILLY November morning for a trip to a nearby dairy farm. After the shock of the cold ( and the smell) we really learned a lot!

Here is a close up view of one of the milking stations. The cows are each milked twice per day. NEVER a day off! They walk in single file , walk to the end, and turn, put thier heads through the opening and their back ends facing ready to be hooked on! He said it takes about 2 weeks to train them to do that. Each cow produces an average of 7 - 9 gallons of milk a day!

Since the Dairy was only 13 miles from home, Daddy was able to take a break and join us for a little while!

Here is Kaebrie, hanging tight to the "udder-suckers"

We were taken to the nursery. These babies were only one day old. A cow can't produce milk until she has given birth to a calf, so there are countless pregnant cows all the time!

Then I guess she wanted to be a baby cow. She was the only one who could fit in there!

Kaebrie was a LITTLE nervous about touching the calf.......

But she did it ( in her way to big gloves because Mommy couldn't find a smaller sized pair)

Kaitlynn and our friends Grace and Alice looking into another baby pen.

The Idaho Smith kids with a herd of Idaho dairy cows!

BONUS!!!!!!!!!!! One of the mommy cows was actually giving birth while we were there! You can see the legs sticking out!!!!!!!!! We weren't able to stick around for the entire birth. It was WAY to cold and windy out, and the owner said this was her first calf and might take her a few hours. He said they average about 5 births a day.

I love this one! This is the pen where all the Mommy cows that are due to deliver any day are held until they deliver.

It was finally time to get out of the wind and go back to the main dairy house for a snack! Chocolate milk and cheese! :-)

Kaebrie helping herself!

Here are some interesting facts we learned today!

*Cows eat about 90 pounds of food PER DAY! EACH!! That is equal to about 480 hamburgers!
*Each cow drinks between 30 - 50 gallons of water each day
*A cow that eats only grass can produce about 50 glasses of milk in a day; but a cow that is fed grass, corn, hay and feed can make DOUBLE that!
*When Pilgrams came to America, they brought cows with them!

Way to much fun with corn!

The pictures mostly speak for themselves. This 2 year old LOVES corn-on-the-cob! When I first gave it to her, it was a little to hot for her to pick up, so she just leaned over and ate it off her tray with no hands. By the time I got Sam's attention and he got the camera, it had cooled enough and she used her hands and didn't do it again. When she was done eating, she went around the table as we were clearning it and finished off everyone else's corn also!




Didn't realize her shirt and the wall were so close in color! :-)